118 MEADOW-SWEET. 



mended. We might infer from its sensible properties that 

 it has some claim to the character of a tonic and astrin- 

 gent, and in diarrhoea, dysentery, haemorrhages, haemor- 

 rhoids, &c, it might be useful when astringents are ad- 

 missible. The herbaceous part of the plant has similar pro- 

 perties, but in a slighter degree. The flowers are reckoned 

 sudorific and antispasmodic, and a warm infusion has been 

 given with success to provoke the appearance of receding or 

 languishing eruptive diseases*. The distilled water is a good 

 vehicle for other medicines, and the flowers themselves are 

 useful to strew about the room where patients are lying with 

 fever, &cf- 



An infusion or decoction of half an ounce of the root, or of 

 one ounce of the leaves to a pint of water, may be taken as an 

 astringent in doses of a cupful, at suitable intervals. The 

 infusion of the recent flowers may be used as ordinary be- 

 verage. 



* Hall. Hist. Stirp. Helv. n. 1135. — Rosenstein om Barnsjukd, p. 134. 



217- 



f " The leaues and floures farre excell all other strowing herbes, for to 

 decke vp houses, to straw in chambers, halls, and banqueting houses in the 

 summer-time ; for the smell thereof makes the heart merrie, delighteth 

 the senses : neither doth it cause headache or lothsomeness to meat, as 

 some other sweet smelling herbes do,"— Gerard. Em. 1043. 



